I looked at your paper with interest since this is not my field and I was curious to see what the app might actually look like. Two questions. the first is general for ABMT: how generalizable is an angry face to all the other things a person might be afraid of? The second concerns first-person shooter computer and video games. Given that these games involve the player focusing attention on threatening targets, would anxious people who play these games possibly be making themselves more anxious?

Thanks for the questions! We chose angry faces because they do seem to generalize – they are highly salient to us, for good evolutionary reasons – adaptive to tune into social cues from others about threat or danger. In terms of FPS games, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I do think anxiety could be perpetuated. Although I don’t know of any data to that effect. Whatever the case, one logical extension of that thought is that integrating an anxiety-reduction component into games – between levels or whatever – could help alleviate this.

I agree with you, @Cate Pane, technology seems to be the biggest driver of anxiety in modern culture. That’s why this article drew my attention. The idea of an anti-anxiety app seemed a bit counter-intuitive to me at first.

Bitcoin reduces my anxiety and that’s technologyhttp://myfreebtc.wordpress.com
It can’t be determined what causes anxiety for everyone so we cannot hastily generalize technology as a cause of anxiety. For many yes it is but for others technology allows an escape from the hectic world around them. Technology cannot be inherently good or bad it’s simply how it is used and how we react to it.

When anxiety is at its highest, some people are willing to try anything for some relief. So if technology might be the cause of some anxiety (although not all) why can’t it contribute to curing it as well? I think it’s a brilliant idea if it can be effective